-"Some live by battle, others through words. It is better to do the latter, for battle can lead to an untimely death"

*Nyima*

Stupid... why did I keep getting into others' business? That was one of the reasons why I had no friends during middle school...

"Ryomi found the stones!" Ryomi yelled, running up to me. Her smile faded as she noticed my concern. "Is Nyima fine?"

I chuckled upon hearing her refer to the two of us as if we weren't present. "I'll get over it," I said, rolling my arms. "Let's go."

Ryomi hugged her bear with her free hand. "What's that Beary? Nyima seems worried?"

Ugh, the girl was starting to remind me of myself. "Beary doesn't know what it's talking about."

The princess pouted. "Beary knows everything!"

I snickered. "Really? Then tell me, Beary, what is Lei so afraid of?"

Ryomi stared into her bear's eyes for some time. "Hmm, it's a secret."

I patted her head and snickered. Thought so. Her bear was only a bear. "Come, let's go."

She smiled and nodded, running after me.

As we walked downstairs, we ran into Ayawamat and Seron.

The guy glanced up but quickly averted direct eye contact. "Following me now?" he asked, his hands tightening around the rail.

I walked past him. "You're full of yourself. Ryomi and I are looking for another item. Thus far, we got the stones and the blooms." The clock above us indicated that only fifteen minutes remained. "Damn, we're going to cut it close."

Ryomi hugged her bear and her dragon emerged from it. "Be... I mean, Rami. Find the leaves and the crushed flowers."

The small pink dragon slightly bowed and flew off to the floors below.

The dragon was the one responding to her all this time? Wait, but how? I didn't hear Rami speak while inside the bear. Was it some kind of psychic connection, like what the triplets and the twins had?

"Something the matter?" Ryomi asked. She gave me a smug grin. "Don't ya worry. Rami will easily find the leaves and the crushed flowers. She does have a connection to plants, though she isn't technically a 'wood-type'."

"That's great, so the only item that will remain will be the scale."

"Got that covered," she responded, summoning a pink and white scale out of thin air. "Rami wants you to have this. Hmm, not sure why but she seems to like you." She pouted. "Don't think of taking her."

Rami, attached to me? I had no idea as to why she would be considering that we had barely met.

"Seron, let's follow that dragon," Ayawamat yelled, running past me. He jumped over the rails and into the darkness below as webing shot out from his hands.

"Woah," Ryomi said, her eyes shiny. "He's like a superhero!
I shook my head and ran down the stairs. "Nope, that guy is more like a villain. We got to stop him from taking our items."

Ryomi shrugged. "Rami can take him on. She won't be fighting you so she won't hold back."

'She held back against me? Why? It wouldn't be a similar situation to Adela's restricted powers, would it? But then again, why would Rami suddenly have them unlocked? Unless this little girl purposefully had her hold back...' I snickered. She did seem proud, so she probably wanted to take me on herself instead of leaving it all to her partner.

My partner skipped down after me. "It's Rami's weird attachment to ya."

What, wait that's why she held back? Hmm, I got to ask that B. I mean, Rami more questions.

**Adela**

"Got some of the rocks," Ryuusei yelled, handing them over to Iah.

Natsuki had yet to return from her search, had she not found any yet?

"Worried about your partner?" Iah asked as he put away the rocks into a basket.

I lifted up a gray and green scale from a table filled with multiple ceramic scales, likely an attempt by Lady Zettai to throw us off.

"I'm going to go check in on her," I responded. I put away the scale in my basket and headed back up.

"Move out of the way!" yelled Nyima. I jumped back and watched as she zipped past me.

"Oi," Iah said, waving.

"Move out of the way!" she yelled.

Ryuusei, who now had the basket in his hands, moved to the side.

"Oww," Iah said. "Is your head made out of orichalcum?"

She glared at him as she got off of him. "You did this on purpose, didn't you?"

Iah gave her a flirty smile. "Maybe."

Her face turned bright red. "Next time, I'll slice you!"

I sighed and returned to what I was doing. I hurried upstairs and saw Lei and Akito with Natsuki.

"There she is," Lei said, nudging Natsuki.

"Did you get lost?" I asked.

She nodded shyly as she raised her closed hands. "I got the stones."

I held out my hands for her to drop the pebbles into. They are indeed the same glittering white stones that I had read about in my father's study.

"Looks like we're all here," Iah said as he and Nyima glanced up at us.

Lei frowned in the direction of Nyima but quickly tried to replace it with a smile.

"Lei," Nyima called out. "I'm sorry..."

Lei smiled more genuinely this time. "I might've overexaggerated too. Well, I better get going and find myself a scale."

I glanced down at the scale in my basket. Something was off about it. Lifting it up, I noticed that it was actually two interconnected scales. Splitting it in half as if it were a piece of bread, I handed Lei the extra one.

Lei's eyes sparkled upon seeing the scale. "Wah, thanks!" He snickered as he put it into his basket. "I think that's everything."

"You found the other items?" Nyima asked. "Last I checked you..." She lowered her head. "Sorry, I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

I blinked. 'Doing what?'

"It's fine," Lei said, taking his basket from Akito to show us all of his items. Indeed, he had collected all of them. "I found the crushed flowers and the rocks while helping Natsuki out."

"We got lucky," Akito said, grinning. He glanced up at the ticking clock. There were only five minutes left.

"Think that Rami found them?" Nyima asked her partner.

Ryomi nodded. "She's got..." She suddenly started to cough out blood. "That boy..."

"What boy?" Iah asked.

**Ayawamat**

Seron snatched the crushed yellow flowers that were behind the little pink dragon while I kept her attention away. The creature wasn't backing out.

"Those belong to my master!" she yelled as a wave of water and light surrounded her. The creature transformed into a larger and more beautiful-looking dragon. The scales of her forehead were like a mosaic of rubies, emeralds, and sapphires.

"This is bad," Seron exclaimed as he summoned his own dragon. "Rami is using her real level one form now!"

I wiped the blood out of my lip and grinned. "Finally, a real fight in this world."

The pink dragon glowed brightly and its wounds vanished immediately. "No one can defeat the Dragon of the Day!" She slapped Seron to the ground and took back the herbs while flying off with the rest of the ingredients.

"Hey, come back here!" I yelled. I used my webbing to slow down her ascent.

"Rami!" her owner yelled.

Lei flew down with the young princess, cutting down the webbing that I had used to get down to the lowest floor of the vault.

I called forth my insects and had them attack Rami.

The dragon covered herself in a barrier of light which only caused the moths that I had move faster. They devoured her light, but it moved too much for them as they fell down. Her light powers were on an entirely different level... To think she was just the pet of a five-year-old.

"Attacking a child's dragon?" Lei asked as he sent a powerful gust raining down on me. "Pathetic."

Pathetic...

***

"Pathetic, you can't even cast a spell above basic. You're a disgrace to our family," Father stated, his eyes cold. "You even allowed yourself to get picked on by those triplets."

"Only two of them! I'm stronger than the youngest one," I corrected.

"Only because he's like a fish without water. One day, he might surpass you too."

I shook my head. "T-that won't ever happen! I won't let him beat me!"

***

I kicked the floor, and looked up as Rami handed over the items to Ryomi. Lei didn't even bother to look down at me.

Had I truly become pathetic?

"Hey!" Seron yelled. He handed me a shiny scale and some crushed white flowers. "Rami spilled some of the flowers. As for this scale, my dragon found one on the way here."

I smiled at the kid. "Thanks but we're missing the leaves. We only got a few seconds left." I snickered as I glared at the items. "It's over."

"For someone who acts like such a tough guy, you give up rather easily, don't you?" Nyima said as she came running up to us, or rather me. She slammed her hands against my chest. "Here, they're yours."

Leaves fell to my feet as she removed her hands. "Adela found some more."

I squatted down and carefully picked them back up to not crush them further than Nyima already had.

"Time!" Koukyuu's voice roared throughout the vault. "Return to the starting point."

"Come," Nyima ordered as she turned the corner into another hallway. "We'll settle this dispute by determining which of us makes the better pill."

I rubbed my chest as I walked on ahead. "Tha...nks," I responded, looking to the side.

Nyima raised a hand to her mouth, stifling a giggle.

"What...what's so funny?" I demanded to know, narrowing my eyes at her.

"It's nothing," she said, letting out a cute giggle.

I wanted to wipe that smile off of her face and at the same time, I didn't...

**Solar Note: What did you think of the three perspectives for this chapter? I hoped that you enjoyed it. If you did then click on that star :D!**